WHEN Natalie Knighting was sentenced this week to six months in a young offenders' institution for falsely claiming she was raped by a tramp on her way home from a Newcastle funfair, Judge David Hodson told her she had wasted precious police resources.

And of course, she had. Her stupid lie, told, she says, because she felt unloved and wanted to be the centre of attention, resulted in 140 hours of police time being spent on a full rape inquiry. "It's a huge amount of police effort,'' said Judge Hodson.

But he failed to mention the real victims of Knighting's crime - women who, in future, will be scared to come forward to report a rape because they fear they won't be believed.

The police took Knighting's claims seriously, and many innocent men were needlessly questioned as a result. How many officers in Newcastle will now be more wary when a young girl tells them she has been attacked? Will they be less likely to accept her story at face value? More likely to question her motives?

Lawyers for Knighting, who conned authorities out of £7,500 compensation, claimed her difficult upbringing made such a crime almost inevitable. But most people who have had difficult upbringings don't make false allegations of rape.

In the past few decades, great efforts have been made to take accusations of rape more seriously. Victims are dealt with more compassionately. More women are coming forward to report attacks.

Sadly, a lie such as Knighting's casts a dark, doubtful shadow over such hard-won progress. And that is her real crime.

WITHIN hours of leaving the celebrities' favourite drying-out clinic The Priory, rock star Shane MacGowan was photographed out on the booze again at London's trendy Met Bar. I can't help thinking that if more stars accepted their addiction is just the same as everyone else's - boring, mundane and ugly - they may have more chance of beating it. Stars pay a fortune to stay at fashionable clinics, which appear to glamourise their addiction. Joining Alcoholics Anonymous would cost them nothing, except their pride.

TV PRESENTER Carol Vorderman has often praised her mother, who is there to look after her children seven days a week, 24 hours a day if necessary while she is away working. Thanks to granny, Carol is now never off our screens, fronting a host of BBC and ITV shows. Working such hours would put a strain on anyone's family life. Perhaps if Carol, like the rest of us, had had to put more effort into juggling family responsibilities with work, her husband and children would have seen more of her and her marriage wouldn't have broken down. Maybe her mother wasn't doing her any real favours after all.

IMAGINE politicians operating under the same rules as contestants on Channel 4's Big Brother. Mo Mowlam would, of course, emerge as outright winner. Because no matter how many times colleagues nominate her for eviction, the public would refuse to let her go. It was hardly surprising that, as she bowed out of politics at the Brighton Conference this week, a national opinion poll revealed voters want her in Number 10. Meanwhile, a new political bestseller is said to expose a number of devious, manipulative schemers in cabinet. But it will do wonders for their careers. Sadly, in politics, unlike Big Brother, characters like Nasty Nick thrive.

INSTEAD of wasting money propping up the ailing Dome, why not spend the cash on a few more London Eye-type wheels in other major cities throughout the country? Why not a Newcastle Eye, a Glasgow Eye, a Leeds Eye? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love the chance to take in such views, and would happily travel quite a distance to do so. At least it would spread the money around a bit.